Resolve has nothing to do with body count. It has to do with the real and percieved threat faced.
Agreed PW2. I have learned a lot about Islam as a religion and philosophy and the troublesome history of Islam since 9/11/2001. It is very sobering. Most state to state and many 'uprisings' of the population (type wars) in the world over the last 1500 years have had some involvement with this religion.
The brutal tactics used and the philosophy have not modernized, and many followers are stuck in their 500 year old memories when the religion produced societies far superior to the West, (at that time: in terms of science and the use of technology), and seem to be very jealous of the West's progression since then.
Germany and Japan were real and clear threats to our country and our way of life.
Agreed again. The Muslims lack the industrial might of Germany/Italy/Japan in the 1930s vs the rest of the world. That said: today's world is ideally suited to their (Islamic Terrorists') style of conflict. Technology, (mainly Western), has produced tremendously lethal weapons and very good communications options for terrorists. The technology for the weapons is becomming more and more available: world wide. Most Western societies are open and relatively easy to enter. The world has not fought a total all out war since 1945, and is very politically correct and very soft.
The Vietnam War produced a fairly large anti American anti war sector of society here and in Europe that holds considerable power politically and in academia and the media, and is working real hard with constant propaganda to level the playing field with real results in favor of our advisaries. We don't hear much about the ruthlessness of our enemies with electric drills n' knives to saw off heads, but we hear lots about how bad America is with Abu Grab, Gitmo et al.
Our media exagerates the civilian casualties (over 600,000 claimed in Iraq without any basis in truth), and treats every bomb that kills our troops or Iraqi people as a victory for the bad guys. With over 1 billion people this is a real threat that the modern Democrat party: ALL Democrat Presidential contenders treat as a "bumper sticker" not a WAR. The media buries foiled terriorist threats, that really would have been a very big problem on page 37.
This is also a real and clear threat: but most Americans are not interested in the matter. 35% of Democrats think President Bush actually knew of 9/11 prior to the attack thanks to the lack of critical thinkin' in the population these days.
Americans stepped up then, and they would step up again if faced with a similar threat today.
Don't agree here PW2. The distruction 9/11 was greater in both deaths and in material terms then Pearl Harbor, n' I don't see much corncern from Democrats, other then a quest for political advantage, n' radical Islamists have been attacking us since Jimmy Carter brought the Ayatollah to Persia in 1979. Democrats have sucessfully forced our defeat in 1975, that cost 3,000,000 of our former allies their lives, without significant cornsequence. In fact it was profitable for them: politically speaking. They can act real fearce for five minutes and force us to WAR, but when they turn to bite us and appologize for votin' ta go to war, they get rewarded by their cornstituants.
When FDR said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" he was correct.
It seems the opposite lesson is being taught today, for some reason.
